In this fun flower arranging workshop, Kristina Hand of Spruce Ave Flowers in Fertile will be showing you how to make an easy fall bouquet that you can take home (or to work, to show off!), sharing a little bit of her flower knowlege with us, and buying you a beer/cider/root beer. The price of the class ($25) also includes the vase/mason jar.

Spruce Ave Flowers is not an ordinary florist, as all the flowers she uses are actually grown from seed, root, or bulb right in Fertile. Kristina says flowers that are locally grown are more much more unique (many flowers are too fragile or can’t be shipped in from another country and aren’t available at your local florist), they smell better because they are fresher and chemical free (safe to sniff), and they help our local ecosystem (happier bees and butterflies).

How do you keep cut flowers fresh longest? How do I shop for more sustainable flowers? What's blooming right now? Come with ALL of your flower questions for Kristina and she'd be happy to chat with you.

We're pairing four delicious little scones from our friends Beanzy's in Mason City with four taster size Fat Hill Brewing beers. Pairing food with beer helps you recognize and enhance new flavors in both the beer and the food. In short, it makes both things more delicious!

Your $18 ticket price includes the scone flight and accompanying beers (four types of scones/four beers). No substitutions. Although the full menu is yet to be set (because we wait to see what's going to be on tap that night, in order to ensure perfect pairings!), the flight night will probably not be suitable for people that avoid dairy, pork products, or nuts.

Tickets are required for this event Walk-in requests for scone flights unfortunately cannot be fulfilled. Due to space restrictions in the brewery, we are selling exactly 50 tickets and no more, so if you're interested we suggest you buy now. (Our last flight night sold out in less than 24 hours.)

Come in any time between 4 PM - and 9 PM on Thursday, September 28 to claim your goodies!

Jordan Mayland is well known for being involved in many musical projects such as Tires, Volcano Boys, and his solo project Jordan Mayland and the Thermal Detonators. Hailing from Rake, Iowa, Jordan started his first band Keepers of the Carpet with his close friends around 1996. He continued to study music at Central College in the early 2000’s and has since put out many albums and played countless shows around the nation. Expect to hear many of Jordan’s songs and his favorite covers (from bands like The Beatles, Tom Petty, and Weezer) during this rare North Iowa solo set!

Wait, there's more! Clear Lake Express Food Truck will be on the scene! They'll be parked outside during Jordan's show so there's no need to miss a minute of the tunes. Here's the menu they're planning for the big day:

We were thrilled at the turnout for our first few writing group meetings! We have so many genres, experience levels, and ages represented. We've had great discussions and everyone was so enthusiastic about writing and learning new things!

October agenda is:

- Joshua submission

- Chrystal submission

- plot tips/tricks discussion

- How are you doing on your writing challenge?

If you'd like to submit a writing sample for the group to discuss, email it to Molly at FHB (molly@fathillbrewing.com) 8 days before the meeting. She will email out the whole packet to the whole group the day after so the group will have that whole week to read the submissions. In order to avoid millions of emails to the group, Molly is going to be strict about that submission deadline.

Submissions should be about 5 pages double spaced. If your submission comes from the middle of a larger piece, it might be good to include a paragraph of introduction to get people into the story. If your piece has explicit content, please say so at the top as some of our members might want to pass on that.

If you didn't come to the first few meetings but are interested in joining the group, you are more than welcome. Please email molly@fathillbrewing.com and she will make sure you have the submissions that we'll discuss next.

Signs are handmade and constructed with new wood, most dimensions are 14.5" x 18". You will be supplied with all the materials and direction needed to create your own hand painted sign. When registering for this class, please indicate which design you would like to paint in the Sign Choice field of sign up. Class fee will include all supplies and instruction to create your own hand painted sign and your choice of one pint of beer, cider or root beer!

Class fee: $49Class size: max of 15 (so if you're interested, please register soon to avoid disappointment...the last Artsy Dabbler sign workshop we announced sold out in 2 days)Restrictions: must be 21 or older to participate

We love beer. We love the beer we make, but we also love trying other beer. Join us for our next bottle share!

We host a bottle share on the second Thursday of each month from 4-8 pm. Craft beer lovers are encouraged to bring at least 16 ounces of a new, rare, old, oddball, or just plain delicious beer they’d like to share. Whether it’s a 2004 Cantillon Loerik you traded a kidney for, or just a great pale ale you had at the tiny brewery near your grandma’s house last weekend, beer geeks are encouraged to bring anything they’d like to share.

If you’re a big enough beer nerd to have a favorite sampling glass, feel free to bring it. If not, we’ve got a clean glass for you! This is a casual, come-and-go-as-you-please event, so show up at any time and stay as long you’d like. There is no cost for this event, but we do suggest a generous tip for your friendly bartender who will be cleaning up after us all night.

As always, over-imbibing is not allowed and we retain the right to refuse service to anyone out of line. Hard alcohol is never allowed in our taproom. The bottle share is for beer only. This is the only time outside beer is allowed to be brought into our tap room.

Join us for the 10th meeting of the FHB book club! We meet once a month at the brewery (3rd Wednesday of each month, at 7 pm) and anyone is welcome to come or not come based on their interest in that month's book. No commitment, no stress...just a chance to learn something new, share your opinions, and meet fellow supernerds. The book discussion is lead by our resident bookworm and brewery co-owner, Molly.

October's book is The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, which is the perfect spooky choice to get you in the mood for Halloween!

The book is available in paper, Kindle, and audio formats. Please consider shopping local! Brewery book club members are eligible for a 20% discount on book club books at Book World in Mason City.

About the book

Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House has unnerved readers since its original publication in 1959. A tale of subtle, psychological terror, it has earned its place as one of the significant haunted house stories of the ages.

Eleanor Vance has always been a loner--shy, vulnerable, and bitterly resentful of the 11 years she lost while nursing her dying mother. "She had spent so long alone, with no one to love, that it was difficult for her to talk, even casually, to another person without self-consciousness and an awkward inability to find words." Eleanor has always sensed that one day something big would happen, and one day it does. She receives an unusual invitation from Dr. John Montague, a man fascinated by "supernatural manifestations." He organizes a ghost watch, inviting people who have been touched by otherworldly events. A paranormal incident from Eleanor's childhood qualifies her to be a part of Montague's bizarre study--along with headstrong Theodora, his assistant, and Luke, a well-to-do aristocrat. They meet at Hill House--a notorious estate in New England.

Hill House is a foreboding structure of towers, buttresses, Gothic spires, gargoyles, strange angles, and rooms within rooms--a place "without kindness, never meant to be lived in...."

Although Eleanor's initial reaction is to flee, the house has a mesmerizing effect, and she begins to feel a strange kind of bliss that entices her to stay. Eleanor is a magnet for the supernatural--she hears deathly wails, feels terrible chills, and sees ghostly apparitions. Once again she feels isolated and alone--neither Theo nor Luke attract so much eerie company. But the physical horror of Hill House is always subtle; more disturbing is the emotional torment Eleanor endures. Intense, literary, and harrowing, The Haunting of Hill House belongs in the same dark league as Henry James's classic ghost story, The Turn of the Screw. --Naomi Gesinger via Amazon

Outfitted with an array of instruments, You Knew Me When is a husband and wife indie folk-rock pairing with a full band sound. Formerly of Nashville, TN, the duo have toured full-time since June of 2012 throughout the USA and Canada, sharing their collective sound and recent offerings "We Found Roads" and "The Only You EP". While living a true troubadour lifestyle, You Knew Me When continue to create and serve up an array of craft brewed compositions coast to coast. They love to play at breweries...150 of them so far!

Join us for this cozy, free-of-charge show. As usual, FHB is a 21+ venue.

Originally from Puerto Rico, Fernando Ufret is a seasoned musician who now spends part of each year bringing his classical/flamenco/Spanish guitar infused music to the American Midwest. His solo acoustic show has been running non-stop for 14 years, traveling from Aruba to Alaska. His favorite music to play ranges from Jim Croce to Billy Joel and Micheal Jackson, from the Gipsy Kings to Bon Jovi. There will be something for everyone at this cozy afternoon show!

- Door prizes for the first 20 people wearing purple in honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month

A portion of the proceeds from this event will benefit Crisis Intervention Service and their mission to provide persons affected by domestic violence, sexual assault and homicide with professional, confidential, 24-hour services including safety and support and to prevent violence in north Iowa communities through education.

Tickets are not required to attend the party itself, but you need one if you want a pretzel flight (http://bit.ly/2wajln7).

Please join us in celebrating a great organization doing important work in our communities!

Toni of Toni's Tarot here in Mason City will be spending a few hours in the tap room on again on November 1 for some tarot card readings!

If you've ever seen these cards in action in movies or TV, this is event is an easy, fun way to cross the experience off your bucket list!

"Tarot can enlighten you about the choices you have," says Toni. "The cards don't tell you what you should do or what specifically is going to happen in your future, but rather illuminate the possibilities depending on the path you take."

Your 15-minute reading includes one beer, cider, or root beer and is $20. When buying your ticket, please note the TIME you are signing up for. (There is one ticket per time slot.) Please check in at the bar a few minutes before your scheduled time. If you're not there on time, there's no guarantee we'll be able to fit you in to the schedule so please make sure you arrive with enough time to get your beer and settle in before it's your turn.

There will be no refunds for no-shows or late commers. Must be 21 years or older.

Join us for a cozy afternoon in the taproom! Dang Felton has folk-rooted tunes and some slick finger picking originals. Similar sounds to Nick Drake and Bob Dylan, Felton's lyrical storytelling is full of depth and promise.

Join us for the 11th meeting of the FHB book club! We meet once a month at the brewery (3rd Wednesday of each month, at 7 pm) and anyone is welcome to come or not come based on their interest in that month's book. No commitment, no stress...just a chance to learn something new, share your opinions, and meet fellow supernerds. The book discussion is lead by our resident bookworm and brewery co-owner, Molly.

November's book is Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War by Mary Roach, which is a non-fiction bestseller about all the fascinating small details about the military you may have not thought about before. Described by the New York Times as "America's funniest science writer," Roach has a great way of presenting information in an easy, super approachable way. She answers questions in the book you might not have thought to ask: Why do snipers hate zippers? How is a wedding gown like a bomb suit? Why are shrimp more dangerous to sailors than sharks?

The book is available in paper, Kindle, and audio formats. Please consider shopping local! Brewery book club members are eligible for a 20% discount on book club books at Book World in Mason City.

About the book

Grunt tackles the science behind some of a soldier's most challenging adversaries―panic, exhaustion, heat, noise―and introduces us to the scientists who seek to conquer them. Mary Roach dodges hostile fire with the U.S. Marine Corps Paintball Team as part of a study on hearing loss and survivability in combat. She visits the fashion design studio of U.S. Army Natick Labs and learns why a zipper is a problem for a sniper. She visits a repurposed movie studio where amputee actors help prepare Marine Corps medics for the shock and gore of combat wounds. At Camp Lemmonier, Djibouti, in east Africa, we learn how diarrhea can be a threat to national security. Roach samples caffeinated meat, sniffs an archival sample of a World War II stink bomb, and stays up all night with the crew tending the missiles on the nuclear submarine USS Tennessee. Take a tour of duty with Roach, and you’ll never see our nation’s defenders in the same way again.

A native of Mason City with 17 years playing experience, Levi sings about life and love through his crisply fashioned originals and covers a variety of classic and modern rock songs that range from The Beatles and Bob Dylan to Nirvana and Modest Mouse. You'll love his alternative folk rock-styled sound during this cozy afternoon show.

Acoustic musicians Brad & Kate will make their triumphant return to our tap room in December. We are still getting over their awesome show from March:

Photo courtesy Brad & Kate

Brad & Kate have been entertaining crowds across the Midwest for the past three years with their wide-ranging music, offering a variety of familiar songs ranging from The Beatles to John Mayer and Stevie Wonder to Adele.

They are frequent visitors to our friends Rustic Brew in Hampton and love to play at breweries!

Join us for a cozy afternoon concert with Des Moines-based roots-americana musician Ryne Doughty! Ryne says it's had a great show here in April so we're excited to have him back again.

Ryne's third studio album, "Under The Willow Tree", was released last winter and is now for sale at his live shows, iTunes, CDBaby, Amazon and Spotify.

For more info about Ryne and to listen to some of his music or buy his cds, visit: www.rynedoughty.net/

No admission fee. As usual, FHB is a 21+ venue.

About Ryne

"Ryne Doughty is a roots-americana musician out of Des Moines whose music is deeply rooted in real life stories of love, loss, work, and play. His stripped down, earthy sound is directly influenced by the small, rural town where he was born and raised. The hard-working, simple living, and friendly way of life of the Midwest shines through his music that is understated yet complex and rich with beauty and realness. ﻿﻿Playing behind his third studio album, “Under the Willow Tree”, Doughty is back in Iowa after a few years in the mountains of Colorado and is starting to make a name for himself in the Midwest scene. Whether he's playing small or large venues, he is turning heads wherever he plays.﻿﻿With solid finger-style guitar picking and a rich baritone voice he brings a dynamic of warmth and richness to the stage. Doughty’s performances are always passionate and full of energy and songs that tell real life stories. His live performance and studio albums alike will not leave you wanting. Doughty’s main passion in life is to share his music with the very people who help influence it; the real, hard working, everyday people that make this beautiful world go around."

Nebraska native Dustin Prinz is a seasoned musician used to being on the road. He's a singer-songwriter who draws inspiration from his favorites musicians, which include Michael Einziger of Incubus, Bon Iver, Travis Meeks of Days Of The New, Jason Mraz, John Mayer, Tommy Emmanuel, Rodrigo y Gabriella and John Gomm.

His guitar playing is a blend of hybrid picking and guitar tapping developed during his days as a drummer. Dustin calls his style "Parapicking".

In addition to touring, Dustin is always available on Youtube to his 27 thousand + subscribers.

We're excited to have him visit our tap room for a cozy chill-out concert on a winter afternoon.

Both native Iowans, the lead singer, Ruth Lapointe, was born and raised in Mason City and, guitarist, Jacob Sawyer was brought up in Des Moines.

Original songs from the group such as "Winnebago" and "On the Road" reference life while growing up in small town Iowa.

Other originals such as "I'll Creep on You (Hope you don't mind)" and "Sometimes I wear slacks," which Ruth describes as "female-empowerment anthems," promote women who go against gender stereotypes in their romantic relationships.

Ruthless Ruth has performed on stages ranging from free shows on the street corners of Iowa City to entertaining thousands while performing during RAGBRAI events.

Fred Love is a singer, songwriter and guitarist from Ames, Iowa. He released his debut solo album, "Lily of the Valley," this summer.

A native of an isolated farm town, Fred has always thought of his music as an extension of the most primal forms in the American songbook. His direct blend of country, folk and blues lends his songs an immediacy that taps into the hearts of the wanderers, misfits and strangers that haunt America’s rural interior.

Fred’s hometown seldom attracted the attention of traveling musical acts, so he usually had to drive an hour or more to reach the nearest music venues for live shows. Now, as an established DIY singer-songwriter in Ames, he embraces every opportunity to play the local bars and honky tonks of the rural Midwest in an effort to bring live performances to communities that rarely host them.

You can often find him setting up his guitar and microphone stand in an out-of-the-way watering hole on the plains, serving up his original compositions alongside classic numbers from the likes of Lightnin’ Hopkins and Hank Williams.

Join us for the 9th meeting of the FHB book club! We meet once a month at the brewery (3rd Wednesday of each month, at 7 pm) and anyone is welcome to come or not come based on their interest in that month's book. No commitment, no stress...just a chance to learn something new, share your opinions, and meet fellow supernerds. The book discussion is lead by our resident bookworm and brewery co-owner, Molly.

September's book is Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, which is a contemporary novel about personal identity, culture-shock, love, and growing up. This bestseller is set on a big scale, covering Nigeria, the United States, and England.

Americanah was picked as the winner for the "One Book, One New York" program, part of a community reading initiative encouraging all city residents to read the same book. It has also received several high-caliber awards, including the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and was named one of the top books of the year in 2014 by several important entities including the New York Times.

Americanah is a bit longer than our usual book club books so start early on this one so you have it done by September 20!

The book is available in paper, Kindle, and audio formats. Please consider shopping local! Brewery book club members are eligible for a 20% discount on book club books at Book World in Mason City.

About the book

To the women in the hair-braiding salon, Ifemelu seems to have everything a Nigerian immigrant in America could desire, but the culture shock, hardships, and racism she’s endured have left her feeling like she has “cement in her soul.” Smart, irreverent, and outspoken, she reluctantly left Nigeria on a college scholarship. Her aunty Uju, the pampered mistress of a general in Lagos, is now struggling on her own in the U.S., trying to secure her medical license. Ifemelu’s discouraging job search brings on desperation and depression until a babysitting gig leads to a cashmere-and-champagne romance with a wealthy white man. Astonished at the labyrinthine racial strictures she’s confronted with, Ifemelu, defining herself as a “Non-American Black,” launches an audacious, provocative, and instantly popular blog in which she explores what she calls Racial Disorder Syndrome. Meanwhile, her abandoned true love, Obinze, is suffering his own cold miseries as an unwanted African in London. MacArthur fellow Adichie (The Thing around Your Neck, 2009) is a word-by-word virtuoso with a sure grasp of social conundrums in Nigeria, East Coast America, and England; an omnivorous eye for resonant detail; a gift for authentic characters; pyrotechnic wit; and deep humanitarianism. Americanah is a courageous, world-class novel about independence, integrity, community, and love and what it takes to become a “full human being.” --Donna Seaman via Booklist via Amazon

We had such a good time with our sold-out Iowa Cheese Flight Night we're doing it again -- this time with Wisconsin cheese!

We're pairing four delicious cheeses from around Wisconsin, "America's Diaryland", with four taster size Fat Hill Brewing beers. Different flavors in the cheeses bring out flavors in the beer you may not have noticed before. It's a fun way to re-learn a beer you're already friends with ...and an easy way to try new ones.

Your $20 ticket price includes the cheese flight and accompanying beers (four types of cheese/four beers) and a few crackers/fruit/nuts as well to refresh the pallet in between tastings. No substitutions.

Tickets are required for this event. Walk-in requests for cheese flights unfortunately cannot be fulfilled. Due to space restrictions in the brewery and cooler, we are selling exactly 50 tickets and no more, so if you're interested we suggest you buy now. (Our last flight night sold out in less than 24 hours.)

Come in any time we're open on Wednesday, August 30 to claim your goodies! We open at 4 PM and close at 11 PM, so please come not later than 10 PM so you have enough time to enjoy your flight at a relaxed pace.

Join Market 124 at Fat Hill Brewing for a fun and relaxed fused glass event. Market 124 will provide the tools and all sorts of colored glass, instructions on how to cut glass(the occasional band-aid), you provide the ideas and creativity! Each sun catcher is 4in. square and costs $35. One free drink included! All glass pieces will be fired at Market 124 and be available to pick up after August 30th. No refunds on event purchases. Call or stop by Market 124 for questions at (641) 423-0929 Mon-Sat 10-5, 7pm on Thursdays.

Join us for the 8th meeting of the FHB book club! We meet once a month at the brewery (3rd Wednesday of each month, at 7 pm) and anyone is welcome to come or not come based on their interest in that month's book. No commitment, no stress...just a chance to learn something new, share your opinions, and meet fellow supernerds. The book discussion is lead by our resident bookworm and brewery co-owner, Molly.

August's book is The Brewer's Tale by William Bostwick, which will take us through the crazy history of our favorite beverage. Brewer Jake will be on hand at the meeting to add his thoughts on the book.

The book is available in paper, Kindle, and audio formats. Please consider shopping local! Brewery book club members are eligible for a 20% discount on book club books at Book World in Mason City.

About The Brewer's Tale

Taste 5,000 years of brewing history as a time-traveling home brewer rediscovers and re-creates the great beers of the past.

The Brewer's Tale is a beer-filled journey into the past: the story of brewers gone by and one brave writer's quest to bring them—and their ancient, forgotten beers—back to life, one taste at a time. This is the story of the world according to beer, a toast to flavors born of necessity and place—in Belgian monasteries, rundown farmhouses, and the basement nanobrewery next door. So pull up a barstool and raise a glass to 5,000 years of fermented magic.

Fueled by date-and-honey gruel, sour pediococcus-laced lambics, and all manner of beers between, William Bostwick's rollicking quest for the drink's origins takes him into the redwood forests of Sonoma County, to bullet-riddled South Boston brewpubs, and across the Atlantic, from Mesopotamian sands to medieval monasteries to British brewing factories. Bostwick compares notes with the Mt. Vernon historian in charge of preserving George Washington's molasses-based home brew, and he finds the ancestor of today's macrobrewed lagers in a nineteenth-century spy's hollowed-out walking stick.

Wrapped around this modern reportage are deeply informed tales of history's archetypal brewers: Babylonian temple workers, Nordic shamans, patriots, rebels, and monks. The Brewer's Tale unfurls from the ancient goddess Ninkasi, ruler of intoxication, to the cryptic beer hymns of the Rig Veda and down into the clove-scented treasure holds of India-bound sailing ships. With each discovery comes Bostwick's own turn at the brew pot, an exercise that honors the audacity and experimentation of the craft. A sticky English porter, a pricelessly rare Belgian, and a sacred, shamanic wormwood-tinged gruit each offer humble communion with the brewers of yore.

We had such a good time with our sold-out flight nights for cupcakes and cheese, we're doing it again -- this time with doughnut holes from a local new bakery called Othelia's Doughnuts.

We're pairing four of their delicious doughnut holes with four taster size Fat Hill Brewing beers. Although the final menu is yet to be set, start dreaming of maybe blueberry with robust porter or cinnamon sugar with Scottish ale or lemon with IPA. Different flavors in the doughnut holes bring out flavors in the beer you may not have noticed before. It's a fun way to re-learn a beer you're already friends with ...and an easy way to try new ones.

Walk-in requests for doughnut holes flights unfortunately cannot be fulfilled. Due to space restrictions in the brewery, we are selling exactly 50 tickets and no more, so if you're interested we suggest you buy now. All three of our last flight nights sold out well before the event date. The last one sold out in just a few days. We constantly have people contacting us saying they waited to buy tickets and then missed out and we have to disappoint them.

Jeremy Jewell is a southern Minnesota based musician who plays guitar and sings, as well as blowing harp and playing foot percussion. He performs both original and cover music in a vintage folk style a la Bob Dylan, Neil Young, The Band etc.

Happy Birthday, Harry! Harry's birthday is technically July 31 but we will celebrate a few days later with a muggles-allowed Harry Potter coloring book night. Come any time we're open on August 2nd and pick up any coloring pages/pencils you'd like to use at the bar (free of charge).

FHB brewer Jake will lead a small-sized class on three Saturdays in July (1st, 15th, and 29th) beginning at 2:00pm.

Have you ever wanted to feel, smell, and taste raw ingredients that go into your favorite beer? Then this is the event for you! Brewer Jake will lead you through a guided tasting (a flight of beers he chooses), teach you about flavors and ingredients, take you through the brewing process on an in-depth behind-the-scenes tour (pint of beer included), and set you up with a t-shirt to remember the day. You'll leave with a better understanding of the brewing process and what kind of beers are for you.

To review, your $40 ticket includes:

- class and tour

- flight of four 5 oz beers

- pint or 10 oz beer during the tour

- t-shirt to take home

The class and tour together will be about 2 hours. Classes are limited to 6 people each.

This is a great opportunity to meet our brewer, ask questions, see our brew area and basement, and take your beer hobby to the next level!

It also would be a fun activity to do together with your mom or dad in honor of Mother's or Father's Day. (We're selling these early because we think tickets would make great gifts! Yes, they're coming up again! Mother's Day is May 14 and Father's Day is June 18.)

Tickets are available by via our online ticketing system. Please pick a date to get started:

Des Moines singer/songwriter Courtney Krause will be joining us for a cozy afternoon concert on July 22! She'll play some original songs and also a wide variety of covers from Bob Dylan, to The Beatles, and John Prine, even R.Kelly to Bastille, Alicia Keys, and more in between.

No admission charge. As usual, FHB is a 21+ venue.

About Courtney Krause:

From Des Moines, Iowa, Courtney Krause's music has been featured on KCWI 23, KCCI 8, Iowa Public Radio (IPR), and KFGM Homegrown. From events like Des Moines Music Coalition's Little BIG Fest, to annual volunteering at Race for the Cure, Women Helping Women, and JDRF, Krause has significantly contributed to the musical growth in Des Moines; at the same time, bringing people and music listeners of all ages and backgrounds together.

In 2016, Krause was added to 80/35 Music Festival lineup, after the song "Hardwood Floors" was selected for Carpe Diem III and the song "I Understand" was used to be chosen for the 2016 Community Selected Artist for Des Moines Music Coalition's Gross Domestic Project.

Meeting new people sometimes can be tough, especially as an adult. Maybe you're new in town, maybe you work odd hours, maybe the people at work aren’t friend-able, maybe everyone you meet already has a clique. We have come up with this speed friending event as a super easy way for you to do some fun, casual networking with Mason City-area folks. It's free, no-pressure, all ages 21+ are welcome, and no contact info is exchanged (unless you and your new friend take that initiative). The more people you know around town, the more it feels like home- trust us on that!

Here's how it works:

Thursday, July 20

6 PM - 7 PM- Sign up at the bar to be included in speed friending and get your name tag

7 PM- You'll be given a starting place to either sit or rotate from. (They'll be conversation prompts at your table if you need them)

7:05 PM- 8:00 PM - You'll talk to whomever you're sitting with for exactly five minutes, until we ring the bell, repeating until you've chatted with everyone at speed friending or until it's 8:00 PM

Join us for the 7th meeting of the FHB book club! We meet once a month at the brewery (3rd Wednesday of each month, at 7 pm) and anyone is welcome to come or not come based on their interest in that month's book. No commitment, no stress...just a chance to learn something new, share your opinions, and meet fellow supernerds. The book discussion is lead by our resident bookworm and brewery co-owner, Molly.

Jane Austen died 200 years and 1 day ago from our July book club meeting so we thought it was a fitting time to discuss an Austen book. If you've never read Austen before, we think you'll be especially surprised of the depth, humor, and heart found in Persuasion, which unfortunately is lesser read than her more famous Sense and Sensibility or Pride and Prejudice.

First published in 1818, Persuasion was Jane Austen's last work. Its mellow character and autumnal tone have long made it a favorite with Austen readers. Set in Somersetshire and Bath, the novel revolves around the lives and love affair of Sir Walter Elliot, his daughters Elizabeth, Anne, and Mary, and various in-laws, friends, suitors, and other characters, In Anne Elliot, the author created perhaps her sweetest, most appealing heroine.At the center of the novel is Anne's thwarted romance with Captain Frederick Wentworth, a navy man Anne met and fell in love with when she was 19. At the time, Wentworth was deemed an unsuitable match and Anne was forced to break off the relationship. Eight years later, however, they meet again. By this time Captain Wentworth has made his fortune in the navy and is an attractive "catch." However, Anne is now uncertain about his feelings for her. But after various twists and turns of fortune, the novel ends on a happy note.In Persuasion, as in such novels as Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Emma, Austen limned the plight of young women who could escape the constraints of family life only by marrying, and suggest the foolishness of women who believed they were free and not dependent on the financial and social resources of men. At the same time, Persuasion offers an ironic and subtle paean to the true love that enables one woman to rise above straitened economic circumstances and the stifling social conventions that restricted women to narrowly circumscribed lives in the common sitting room.Sure to appeal to admirers of Jane Austen, Persuasion will delight any reader with its finely drawn characters, gentle satire, and charming re-creation of the genteel world of the 19th-century English countryside.

Nikki Harken and Tabitha Thies are hosting a fun and easy workshop on July 5 to help you make a stress-reducing, nice-smelling, and oh-so-pretty essential oil and succulent diffuser for your desk at the office or shelf, bedside table, or kitchen at home.

Nikki and Tabitha will provide the oils, plants (choose up to three!), containers, and expertise - all for the very succulent-sized price of $20. (If you'd rather bring your own container, the price is just $15. The container should be shallow, 6" or smaller)

The fee is payable to Nikki in cash at the time of the event.

To register (required), just email Nikki/Tabitha at nicholekea@gmail.com and let them know if you're bringing your own planter or not.

We had such a good time with our sold-out Donut Flight Night and Cupcake Flight Night we're doing it again -- this time with CHEESE! What better way to celebrate National Dairy Month!

We're pairing four delicious small-batch cheeses from around the state with four taster size Fat Hill Brewing beers. Different flavors in the cheeses bring out flavors in the beer you may not have noticed before. It's a fun way to re-learn a beer you're already friends with ...and an easy way to try new ones.

Your $20 ticket price includes the cheese flight and accompanying beers (four types of cheese/four beers) and a few crackers/fruit/nuts as well to refresh the pallet in between tastings. No substitutions.

Tickets are required for this event because we need to know how much cheese to order. Walk-in requests for cheese flights unfortunately cannot be fulfilled. Due to space restrictions in the brewery and cooler, we are selling exactly 50 tickets and no more, so if you're interested we suggest you buy now.

Come in any time we're open on Wednesday, June 28 to claim your goodies!

We're selling these tickets super early because we think they'd make a perfect Father's Day or Mother's Day gift! (Something fun you could do together.)

Join us for the 6th meeting of the FHB book club! We meet once a month at the brewery (3rd Wednesday of each month, at 7 pm) and anyone is welcome to come or not come based on their interest in that month's book. No commitment, no stress...just a chance to learn something new, share your opinions, and meet fellow supernerds. The book discussion is lead by our resident bookworm and brewery co-owner, Molly.

June's book is The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen. The winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, as well as a dizzying number of other awards, this book is a spy novel that will appeal to anyone who likes thrillers, history, war stories, and character-driven drama.

The book is available in paper, Kindle, and audio formats. Please consider shopping local! Brewery book club members are eligible for a 20% discount on book club books at Book World in Mason City.

About The Sympathizer

"With the pace and suspense of a thriller and prose that has been compared to Graham Greene and Saul Bellow, The Sympathizer is a sweeping epic of love and betrayal. The narrator, a communist double agent, is a “man of two minds,” a half-French, half-Vietnamese army captain who arranges to come to America after the Fall of Saigon, and while building a new life with other Vietnamese refugees in Los Angeles is secretly reporting back to his communist superiors in Vietnam. The Sympathizer is a blistering exploration of identity and America, a gripping espionage novel, and a powerful story of love and friendship."

Your Mason City Jaycees will be raising money to sponsor two Mason City area sophomores (one from MCHS and one from Newman Catholic) to attend a leadership conference in Des Moines put on by the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership Congress. (http://www.hoby.org/).

We will be selling pulled pork sandwiches, cole slaw, and potato salad.

Join us for an afternoon of entertainment with some Mason City favorites, singer-songwriter Paul Weitzel and The Hats! The Hats play folk, Americana, jam, country, and blues favorites as well as some of their own music, too.

We are very excited to announce that Taste. By Unc's Cheesecakes, Inc. in Osage has chosen us to be their featured brewery for their June 1 summer foods beer dinner! Your $35 ticket gets you five delicious courses paired with our beer (Blonde, Wheat, IPA, Honey Kolsch, and the soon-to-debut Belgian Golden Strong). Call the restaurant directly at 641-832-7340 to make your reservation (required).

In conjunction with American Craft Beer Week, over 50 Iowa Brewer's Guild member breweries open their doors to beer lovers for a daylong series of free VIP tours of their facilities on Saturday, May 20.

Tours of our brew area of about 30 minutes each will take place at 1 PM, 2 PM, and 3 PM. Tours are lead by our brewer Jake and are free but each group is limited to 15 people. Sign up is done through clipboards at the bar that day.

Jennifer Miller of Charles City's Artsy Dabbler will be joining us on May 18 for this custom sign workshop.

This workshop is being held the week after Mother's Day. A ticket to this would be a fun gift for the moms out there! (Or event better, an activity that both of you could do together!)

Signs are handmade and constructed with new wood. Dimensions are 14.5" x 18". You will be supplied with all the materials and direction needed to create your own hand-painted sign.

When registering for this class, please indicate the name you choose to put on sign and also year established in the Name and Year field of sign up. Class fee ($49) will include all supplies and instruction to create your own hand painted sign and your choice of a pint of beer, cider or root beer.

Registration and payment is required (through this link: http://bit.ly/2l8lVs7) to reserve your space. Class fees are non-refundable. If you need to cancel, Jennifer will paint your sign for you and ship it to you. Please feel free to contact her with any questions at 641-257-9685 or through the Artsy Dabbler Facebook page.

Join us for the 5th meeting of the FHB book club! We meet once a month at the brewery (3rd Wednesday of each month, at 7 pm) and anyone is welcome to come or not come based on their interest in that month's book. No commitment, no stress...just a chance to learn something new, share your opinions, and meet fellow supernerds. The book discussion is lead by our resident bookworm and brewery co-owner, Molly.

May's book is Bottomland by Michelle Hoover, which is also the 2017 All Iowa Read. All Iowa Reads are organized by the Iowa Center for the Book, the purpose of which is to "foster a sense of unity [among Iowans] through reading."

Based on a real life story of the author Michelle Hoover's grandmother, the book begins in Iowa in the wake of World War I. It was described in the Minneapolis Star Tribune as "a mystery wrapped in isolation and ethnic fear ... an atmospheric and engaging tale."

The book is available in paper, Kindle, and audio formats. Brewery book club members are eligible for a 20% discount on book club books at Book World in Mason City.

About Bottomland

At once intimate and sweeping, Bottomland follows the Hess family in the years after World War I as they attempt to rid themselves of the Anti-German sentiment that left a stain on their name. But when the youngest two daughters vanish in the middle of the night, the family must piece together what happened while struggling to maintain their life on the unforgiving Iowa plains.

In the weeks after Esther and Myrle's disappearance, their siblings desperately search for the sisters, combing the stark farmlands, their neighbors' houses, and the unfamiliar world of far-off Chicago. Have the girls run away to another farm? Have they gone to the city to seek a new life? Or were they abducted? Ostracized, misunderstood, and increasingly isolated in their tightly-knit small town in the wake of the war, the Hesses fear the worst. Told in the voices of the family patriarch and his children, this is a haunting literary mystery that spans decades before its resolution. Hoover deftly examines the intrepid ways a person can forge a life of their own despite the dangerous obstacles of prejudice and oppression.

Fat Hill Brewing is excited to host Stubble Trouble (Spenser Rahm and Ben Jenniges) on Saturday, May 13 from 2pm to 5pm. Their acoustic music ranges from good old country with Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash, to the rocking tunes of the Eagles, Journey and Bon Jovi, to the modern sounds of Chris Stapleton and Cody Jinks. There will be something for everyone at this cozy afternoon show!

Join us for the 4th meeting of the FHB book club! We meet once a month at the brewery (3rd Wednesday of each month, at 7 pm) and anyone is welcome to come or not come based on their interest in that month's book. No commitment, no stress...just a chance to learn something new, share your opinions, and meet fellow supernerds. The book discussion is lead by our resident bookworm and brewery co-owner, Molly.

April's book is award-winning best seller The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. Part biography, part science lesson, the book explores the life and medical treatment of a woman with cancer in the 1950s. It tells a "riveting story of the collision between ethics, race, and medicine; of scientific discovery and faith healing; and of a daughter consumed with questions about the mother she never knew." This book is sure to divide opinion and make for a great topic of passionate discussion.

The book is available in paper, kindle, and audio formats. Book club members are eligible for a 20% discount at Book World in Southbridge Mall, but they should call ahead to order their copy several weeks before they'd like to start reading (641-424-2665). The Mason City Public Library has several paper copies and one audio copy on CD.

About the book:

From a single, abbreviated life grew a seemingly immortal line of cells that made some of the most crucial innovations in modern science possible. And from that same life, and those cells, Rebecca Skloot has fashioned in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks a fascinating and moving story of medicine and family, of how life is sustained in laboratories and in memory. Henrietta Lacks was a mother of five in Baltimore, a poor African American migrant from the tobacco farms of Virginia, who died from a cruelly aggressive cancer at the age of 30 in 1951. A sample of her cancerous tissue, taken without her knowledge or consent, as was the custom then, turned out to provide one of the holy grails of mid-century biology: human cells that could survive--even thrive--in the lab. Known as HeLa cells, their stunning potency gave scientists a building block for countless breakthroughs, beginning with the cure for polio. Meanwhile, Henrietta's family continued to live in poverty and frequently poor health, and their discovery decades later of her unknowing contribution--and her cells' strange survival--left them full of pride, anger, and suspicion. For a decade, Skloot doggedly but compassionately gathered the threads of these stories, slowly gaining the trust of the family while helping them learn the truth about Henrietta, and with their aid she tells a rich and haunting story that asks the questions, Who owns our bodies? And who carries our memories? --Tom Nissley

FHB is opening up on Tuesday especially to host a DIY string art workshop taught by Becky Pospisal of The Knotty Nail! Join us to pound some nails, tie some string, and create a work of art worthy of the best wall in your house. We'll have lots of different string colors to choose from.

Now living in the Des Moines area, Becky was born in Mason City and she's excited to come back to visit and share her art with us!

Please join us for an afternoon with roots and blues musician Matt Woods. Matt is a seasoned performer who is excited to share the diversity of roots and blues (traditional delta, hill country and urban electric blues, to gospel, country and folk music) with Mason City!

There is no cover charge for this free concert.

About Matt Woods Blues Music:An Iowa native, Woods has been performing regularly since 2002 and has released 4 albums (two solo albums, and two backed by his unparalleled band, The Thunderbolts). He has also won the Iowa Blues Challenge and gone on the represent the state in the International Blues Challenge an unprecedented 3 times. Matt’s first solo album, “If I Was a Fish”, finished inthe top 5 of the International Blues Foundation’s “best self-produced CD” category in 2006. His two subsequent albums, with The Thunderbolts, have also gained national attention. 2007’s, “Be My Friend”, was referred to as “blistering” by Dirty Linen magazine, and Living Blues magazine called 2010’s “Matt Woods and The Thunderbolts”, “a smoking amalgam of Hound Dog Taylor and Freddy King”. Additionally, Blues Revue called the album; raw, hypnotic and “very appealing”. Matt latest album, “Sawdust and Gasoline” was release in 2015. “Sawdust and Gasoline”, which has received extensive airplay in the U.S. and Europe, finished in the Top 5 of the International Blues Foundations “best self-produced CD” category in 2015, and has recently been nominated by Blues Blast Magazine for album of the year in the “Acoustic Blues” category!

Over the course of his career, Matt has also shared the stage with many notable acts, including; Hubert Sumlin, James Cotton, Pinetop Perkins, Louisiana Red, Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, John Primer, RJ Mischo, Delbert McClinton, The Arc Angels, Dr. John, Kelly Hunt, and Joe Price. Perhaps most notably, in 2010, Matt Woods and The Thunderbolts opened for Pat Benetar and REO Speedwagon at the famed Iowa State Fair Grandstand in front of a crowd of 10,000+.

A Writers' Group at FHB will tentatively meet every 1st Thursday of the month at 7pm. Although the format is yet to be decided, we think the group would be a great opportunity for people interested in writing to share ideas, learn from each other, critique works-in-progress, and just have a place to complain about how writing is really hard and how it drives you crazy.

It is our hope that the group itself can decide the format/activities/schedule depending on the needs of the members and our first meeting would be a great time to talk about that. Our first meeting will be a mixer to get to know each other and a group brainstorming session to decide how we want to proceed going forward.

We'll be at the quieter tables near the brew area, most likely, but ask at the bar if you can't find us.

The Writers' Group is open to anyone 21 years and over. All experience levels welcome. Fiction, non-fiction, poetry...whatever you're in to, we'll take you!

If you have any questions, please comment here or email molly@fathillbrewing.com.

We had such a good time with our sold-out Donut Flight Night we're doing it again -- this time with CUPCAKES!

We're pairing four delicious mini cupcakes from Grandma Sugar's Cupcakery with four taster size Fat Hill Brewing beers. Although the final menu is yet to be set, start dreaming of a key lime cupcake with a crisp IPA, a chocolate pretzel cupcake with a roasty porter, caramel apple cupcake with a malty Dublin Red ale... the possibilities are endless! Different flavors in the cupcakes bring out flavors in the beer you may not have noticed before. It's a fun way to re-learn a beer you're already friends with ...and an easy way to try new ones.

Walk-in requests for cupcake flights unfortunately cannot be fulfilled. Due to space restrictions in the brewery, we are selling exactly 100 tickets and no more, so if you're interested we suggest you buy now.

We're selling these tickets super early because we think they'd make a perfect Valentine's or Galentine's gift for anybody on your list!

(Please note the cupcakes in the photo above are a bit bigger than the ones on the cupcake flights. Those will be a little bigger around than a quarter)

Please join us for a cozy afternoon with local authors! Five local writers will be joining us from 2pm to 5pm to mingle, drink beer, sign, and sell their books. Book lovers and aspiring writers are especially encouraged to attend. Please help us support local authors and come say hello!

2. There will be a giant table of FREE books. Your donations of gently used books are welcome for this table, if you have books to get rid of. Anyone is welcome to as many books as they like. Any leftovers will be donated to libraries or other non-profits that request them.

3. A chance at a book shopping spree! Our partner for this event is our local bookseller, Book World of Mason City, located in Southbridge Mall. They donated two gift certificates we'll raffle off! (No charge or purchase necessary to participate in the raffle.)

4. Book club and writer's group sign-up sheets and info. At FHB, we have a monthly book club and we're thinking of starting a writer's group, too! We're also looking for feedback on what other bookish events you'd like to see.

Not a fan of beer or cider? That's ok! Don't feel pressured to purchase anything in order to attend the event.

As usual, this is a 21+ event.

Also, please don't forget about the North Iowa Book Bash on April 8th! They'll have LOTS of authors at that event, and they'll all be different than the ones at the FHB event, so any book lover should plan to attend both.

Are you a local author and not on our list? Due to limited space, we've kept our guest authors for this event at a strict five. If the event goes well, though, we'd love to do the same event again in the fall with a different set of authors. If you're interested in being involved in that event or similar events, please email contact@fathillbrewing.com.

We're saving our bold, boozy Irish beer until St. Patrick's Day. Come in any time we're open on Friday, March 17, to make sure you're one of the first people to try it!

We're calling it the DOUBLE DUBLIN and it's an Imperial Irish Red. Toast the luck of the Irish with this 9%, 12 IBU malty delight. We enhanced an Irish Red Ale recipe by doubling the malt and hops, creating smooth flavors that will remind you of a mix of dark stone fruit, toffee, and caramely sweetness.